Saw her in Metulla last weekend - was impressed with her spins, was not impressed with anything else. If what is written about her on the IISF is true - that she started skating at the age of 16 and is now just 20 - she is crazily talented.

I see Stephanie Zhang (AUS) is entered. Apparently this is this really the Stephanie Zhang that competed internationally ten years ago. I checked the ISU bio, and it lists her as having competed in 2013 Australian Nationals finishing 3rd. She also competed in Nationals in 2005 and 2003, but her last international event dates back to 2002. She is 27 now. Interesting that she chose to come back to competition.

Saw her in Metulla last weekend - was impressed with her spins, was not impressed with anything else. If what is written about her on the IISF is true - that she started skating at the age of 16 and is now just 20 - she is crazily talented.

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An acquaintance of mine who trains there mentioned someone like that a while back, IIRC. I'm not sure I've seen Mualem skate, but it's certainly impressive if she really did start skating that late (and has only trained in Metulla).

I see Stephanie Zhang (AUS) is entered. Apparently this is this really the Stephanie Zhang that competed internationally ten years ago. I checked the ISU bio, and it lists her as having competed in 2013 Australian Nationals finishing 3rd. She also competed in Nationals in 2005 and 2003, but her last international event dates back to 2002. She is 27 now. Interesting that she chose to come back to competition.

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I believe that she has only been back I training for a very short time and that her recent Nationals was the first event she has skated under the IJS.

She has a number of triples already. As to why she would make a comeback at 27, I would say that is Sochi calling her.

An acquaintance of mine who trains there mentioned someone like that a while back, IIRC. I'm not sure I've seen Mualem skate, but it's certainly impressive if she really did start skating that late (and has only trained in Metulla).

They're not doing live score updates, by the looks of things. I wanted to see how Isabelle Pieman was doing, but it looks like I will need to be productive at work instead. Hrumph.

ETA: 7th place after 2 mistakes isn't too bad, so I'll take it. for Hecken's good effort and a 3-3 . Israeli girl had both her double jump attempts downgraded by << and her flying sit and camel combo never got credited at all. I still think this should be a good learning experience for her and she'll have plenty of things to work on after the event.

Seeing a senior skater score TES of 2.85 (SP) and 7.18 (FS) makes me feel a lot better about the state of Irish skating.

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lol. The difference is that we'll see the state of Irish skating in Europeans, while that will remain for those skating in Metulla only.

Muallem states on her site she have been skating for 4 years. If it was taking place, say, in Russia she would be 8y.o. by now. Her list of elements make a decent 8y.o. programme. What were the federation thinking sending her to a competition to get such a blow - beats me. What is she thinking saying she has olympic hopes beats me even more, but then she's not the only israeli skater with sci fi ambitions.

Muallem states on her site she have been skating for 4 years. If it was taking place, say, in Russia she would be 8y.o. by now. Her list of elements make a decent 8y.o. programme. What were the federation thinking sending her to a competition to get such a blow - beats me. What is she thinking saying she has olympic hopes beats me even more, but then she's not the only israeli skater with sci fi ambitions.

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I don't know, even a young skater would be expected to rotate some jumps and to get credit for her spins. Yafit Asaf did when she was still competing (though she had been training longer at that point, I think). I agree that it was irresponsible to send Muallem considering her current level, and someone should have realized what that level was. I hope for her sake that this won't be too hard for her to deal with and that she will be able to improve.

This just goes to show that you can't achieve much with the current training conditions in Israel (not that this is news to anyone). Maybe if the IISF were more concerned about developing the sport in Israel rather than importing d-list skaters with vague Jewish connections things would be different.

Wow ... getting the TES by the skin of her teeth. I wonder if this will be a career changing performance for her. Assuming Nathalie Weinzierl doesn't perform in Euros, the German Federation may send Hecken to Worlds instead. And Hecken is perfectly capable of finishing inside, say, top 20, thus gaining an Olympic spot for Germany. (then the German federation may look kindly towards her when it comes to selection of the Olympic team ... It's all knock-on effect ... but they may still require her to finish in the top ten at Euros or something ......... talk about harsh criteria).